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SDO: Year One

April 21, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) First Light press conference, where NASA revealed the first images taken by the spacecraft.

In the last year, the Sun has gone from its quietest period in years to the activity marking the beginning of solar cycle 24. SDO has captured every moment with a level of detail never-before possible. The mission has returned unprecedented images of solar flares, eruptions of prominences, and the early stages of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this video are some of the most beautiful, interesting, and mesmerizing events seen by SDO during its first year.

In the order they appear in the video the events are:

Prominence Eruption from AIA in 304 Angstroms on March 30, 2010

Cusp Flow from AIA in 171 Angstroms on February 14, 2011

Prominence Eruption from AIA in 304 Angstroms on February 25, 2011

Cusp Flow from AIA in 304 Angstroms on February 14, 2011

Merging Sunspots from HMI in Continuum on October 24-28, 2010

Prominence Eruption and active region from AIA in 304 Angstroms on April 30, 2010

Solar activity and plasma loops from AIA in 171 Angstroms on March 4-8, 2011